a new world hangs outside the window
beautiful and strange
it must be I've fallen awake
I must be

She'd made it. The last island among the chain. Over the course of the last year, the stocky draft mare scoured each one, trekking for as far as her sturdy, tree trunk-like legs would take her. She'd left the shores of the Crossing Isle with the pinnacle mountain Peak at her back, full of hope. Wasp knew better than to expect to find her mother on this aimless adventure. Instead, she was hoping she'd find herself.

The young, dark bay mare felt overwhelmed and untethered. Bozena and a few other souls still toiled away at the Peak, but the terrain was leader-less, lacking a guide to take them into the future. Meanwhile Cullen was a constant threat - and Wasp's body still ached from her first real match against him those weeks ago. In the aftermath of her loss, she briefly considered leaving the Peak altogether and heading back to Atlantis. The silver bay stallion she'd met there - Rougaru - didn't seem so bad. In some ways, he reminded her of Ruger, wherever that stallion was these days.

No idea she had for herself or the Peak's future felt like a good one. So to buy herself some more time, she took to the sea again - despite her brushed shoulder and worn muscles. She still had Luthien to scour, after all.

The seawater clung to her dark coat as she emerged from the surf. Her amber eyes surbeyed the beach, and the rise of the trees just beyond it. Her nostrils flared as she took in the scent of a clearly inhabited terrain. Would this one be different than the rest? She braced herself to be met by an offended stallion, as she had in her previous treks.

W A S P